History: a study of the club archives

“If you don’t know history, you are bound to repeat it”

We are starting a new Rotary year with a new administration. I was wondering if our archives would reveal any wisdom to guide the new officers. Did our “founding fathers” discovery any secret formulas for success to be passed on? Did they settle any major issues for all Rotary time? Or did they struggle with problems we can just be glad no longer plague us?

The secretary’s reports for the old Villagers Club and the fledgling Rotary Club of the early 30s don’t answer all these questions but they do provide some insights.

Even though the Villagers Club was led by such Auburn legends as Hare, Ross, Judd, Toomer, McAdory, Yarbrough, Wright and Hutsell, it elected a new set of officers every six months! Were they out of office before they caught on to the job?

By 1929, the Villagers had become Rotarians and were learning new ways, including year-long terms. Nevertheless, a February 2, 1929, letter from Rotary International suggests that more training might help. It said in part, “We were sorry to note when we received your semi-annual report that you neglected to send a remittance for $2.00 to cover the past due items on the general account of your club.”

Possibly the club had better things to do with dues than to send them north. Times were hard in the late 20s and early 30s. The club was making students loans ranging from $45 to $350. One loan made in 1923-24, while the group was still independent, was a $45 loan to F.S. Arant who was later to head the Department of Entomology.

In 1934, Berta Dunn, whom many of us knew as President Draughon’s dignified long-time secretary, wrote the Rotary Club in her role as publicity chairman of the Auburn Professional Women’s Club. She was seeking help in funding highway signs on the edges of town to advertise the various civic clubs.

The same year our secretary received letters from Washington, D.C. acknowledging club resolutions in support of funding for armories at land-grant institutions such as Auburn—letters from such Alabama notables as Rep. Henry B. Steagall and Senator Hugo L. Black.

On one occasion we asked the district governor to learn from RI if an active member of our club could accept honorary membership in a competing “luncheon club”—Kiwanis. Unfortunately I did not find RI's. answer. One summer we moved the starting time for our meetings from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. to accommodate class schedules.

A long letter addressed to “Dear Buster” hinted that attendance has always been an Auburn problem. It began, “I am enclosing a Red Card which you, as an old automobile driver will recognize as a danger signal. You perhaps have noticed that upon your first absence the card sent outlined the methods of making up absences.” The letter goes on to speak of the ultimate Green Card.

In these early days membership cards were used in ways very different from the ways they are used now—for which our current secretary and treasurer can be thankful. When Secretary Baughman was to be away for a period his wrote his replacement, “When cards are issued so very very irregularly as they need to be to follow the irregular payment of dues I find it very confusing to know to whom and to when cards have been issued. And promiscuous cards are ‘bad form’ too easy for the unscrupulous person to get hold of and use on far away clubs to borrow money etc. News from headquarters tells of such cases frequently.”

I’ll bet that visiting Rotarians would have a hard time getting a loan from our new treasurer!

Report of the History Committee for July 2006